No ocean too wide for former swim teammates at University of Alabama

Sunday

Oct 27, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Few things bring Alabama alumni and fans together the way a home football game does. For two friends, Saturday's Tennessee game marked the first time they'd been at the university together since they were teammates on the women's swim team nearly four decades ago.“We decided last year that we really should make an effort to come back, and come back together,” said Christine Jarvis Ilman, who swam for UA in the 1970s along with Betsy Saunders Matheney.

By Ashley ChaffinStaff Writer | The Tuscaloosa News

Few things bring Alabama alumni and fans together the way a home football game does. For two friends, Saturday's Tennessee game marked the first time they'd been at the university together since they were teammates on the women's swim team nearly four decades ago.“We decided last year that we really should make an effort to come back, and come back together,” said Christine Jarvis Ilman, who swam for UA in the 1970s. “We have good memories, and we always keep in touch with what's going on as far as the (swim) team or how the football team is doing.”Ilman and Betsy Saunders Matheney competed together when Matheney was a senior and Ilman was a freshman. Their team placed fourth in the nation, which makes it the highest-ranking team in Alabama women's swimming history, they said. “It was just an amazing time because we were a really good group of girls and we got along very well,” Ilman said. “It was great team spirit. We had a lot of cheering and a lot of chants that we did. We got ourselves really into it.”Matheney helped to start the program. When she arrived in 1974, she was on a two-woman team. When she graduated in 1976, there was a team of nearly 20, including Ilman.After their own swimming careers ended, both Matheney and Ilman went into teaching and coaching. Ilman, whose swimming career took her to the Olympics competing for Great Britain in 1972 and 1976, retired in 2010 but remains active in swimming in Cambridge in England as the president of the swim club. She shared a story of when her team from a school of only 500 beat Eton College, a much larger school.“That was one of the years that Prince William was on the team,” she said. “We have a big competition for all the private schools, and he swam on their relay that year.”Matheney returned to her school, Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale , Fla., and coached all types of sports, except swimming. She recently returned to her roots coaching swimming in Connecticut. During the national championship competition in 1976, the last time the two competed together and Matheney's last competition, both broke American records — Matheney as a member of the 200 freestyle relay and Ilman in the 100 breaststroke.Ilman said her most vivid memory of swimming at Alabama was the camaraderie. She took the spirit of swimming in the United States with her when she moved back to England. “The one big thing about being in the U.S. and swimming in the U.S. is there is a tremendous amount of spirit and a real feel of a club team that we don't actually have in the UK,” she said. “We don't seem to be able to replicate it very well as far as that feeling.” That camaraderie was not lost after graduation as Matheney and Ilman have stayed in constant contact and, despite having the Atlantic Ocean between then, make it a point to see each other at least once a year.